Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Time and Darkness
by Shaded Skies
Summary: A tale of Pokémon exploring beyond the reaches of Time and into the deepest realms of Darkness. Chapter 2: "Realization" is now done! What do you do when you wake up one day and find out that you are yellow and have a tail?
1. Rebirth

**Pokémon Mystery Dungeon - Explorers of Time and Darkness**

**Chapter 1 - Rebirth**

* * *

_It's working! We did it!_

...

_AAAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGHHH!!_

_A-Are you OK!? Hold on tight, we'll make it! Don't let go!_

_Gasp ... My arms...! They're disappearing...! No! Hold on!_

_Don't let go! Don't let go! __Don't let g..._

* * *

This day for sure. Now or never. She was fully prepared, ready for the task that was at hand. Her determination peaked as she clutched her most treasured belonging tightly, and an unbreakable spirit began to burn within her heart. Feeling more confident than ever before, she started walking up the road at a fast pace. The wooden sign she knew so well passed her by in a moment's flash, and the stairs were never easier to climb. As she reached the top of them, she knew that she had also reached her destination.

Not wanting to yield, she decided to keep her eyes focused at her goal. Staring intently at the entrance, she walked past the flags, cut trees and bushes. However, the nearer she got to the entrance, the larger it seemed to become. The fact that it was shaped exactly like the leader of the guild was not helping one bit. Although the entrance was smiling, what if the leader in real life is very different? What if he is strict or mean? What if she ends up regretting…

She slowed her pace down more and more and finally stopped herself right in front of entrance. 'This won't work… I'm not cut out for this. I'll just go home and prepare myself for tomorrow, and then maybe I will…' she started thinking to herself, but suddenly a thought hit her. "I will… No, no, no! I even brought my treasure so that I could do this… I have to be brave… Be brave… Today for sure… Now or never…"

Quietly repeating the slogans she had come up with during her earlier stroke of courage, she took a few shaky steps towards the entrance. She looked around to make sure that no one was watching her from one of the bushes. Suddenly, she heard a strange sound as she stepped on something weird on the ground. She jumped a little out of shock, but kept herself from doing anything else when she noticed that she had just stepped on a wooden grid, covering a large hole in the ground. It was positioned right behind a small hill, so she hadn't noticed it at first. 'Whew… I won't be scared away that easily' she thought to herself, feeling her confidence returning. "POKEMON DETECTED! POKEMON DETECTED!" a loud and shrill voice suddenly echoed from the hole, almost making her jump out of her skin. "WHOOSE FOOTPRINT? WHOOSE FOOTPRINT?" the voice continued, each syllable causing every nerve in her body to shatter as she kept repeating "Brave… Today… Now…" to herself while standing paralyzed at the spot. The voice was silent for a few seconds, before shouting "THE FOOTPRINT IS CHIKORITA'S! THE FOOTPRINT IS CHIKORITA'S!".

"Waaaahh!" Chikorita screamed as she turned around and ran away from the hole and jumped into one of the nearby bushes. Moments later, she saw a shadow of someone at the entrance and could hear a voice. "Huh? There's no one here!" it said as the shadow went inside again, "STUPID PRANKSTERS!".  
Crawling out of the bushes later, Chikorita sighed heavily. 'Pathetic… What am I doing…?' she asked herself. She lowered the leaf on her head to take a look at her trump card, her personal treasure that she had brought with her for support. She looked back at the entrance one last time before walking away with her head hanging low.

* * *

"Gah! That was close, she almost saw us!" Zubat said, moving out from behind a rock to watch the saddened Pokémon leave. "Wahahaha! Will ya get a load of this coward!?" Koffing laughed, rolling around on the ground behind the rock, "Can't even ENTER the place! WAHAHAHAHA!"  
"Hehe... Yeah... But did you see that thing she had on her head?" Zubat said as Koffing calmed down. "Uhh... A green leaf?" Koffing said with a quizzical stare, "Oh, you mean inside it? Yeah, that rock-thing. What about it?". "I heard her mumble something about bringing a treasure with her... And that was the only thing she was carrying, right?" Zubat said and flexed his large ears for a moment to strengthen his point. "Um, at least from what I can tell, it's kind of hard to see" Koffing said, "But that might be true, it looked like that rock had something on it". "Well then, let's steal it!" Zubat said gleefully, "It's not like she's gonna try to stop us, right? She's such a coward!"

* * *

'... I'm such a coward' Chikorita thought as she walked down the cliff towards the beach, like she usually did when she was feeling depressed. When she got there, she noticed that the sky was filled with bubbles glittering in the sunset. "Oh! It's time for that again" she exclaimed, getting a rush of happiness for a moment before remembering why she was there. She sat down on the sand and stared out over the ocean. The massive ocean was shining glowing yellow, orange and blue while the bubbles in the air each reflected and transformed the breathtaking view into tiny little versions of itself. A bunch of Krabby had gathered at the edge of the water, where they were constantly increasing the number of the already many bubbles in the air.

'… It's not my fault! It's that loud voice that came out of nowhere…' Chikorita thought and slumped together like a beanbag. Seeing the sun setting at the horizon was beautiful, but did little to help her cope with her feelings. 'I… Why am I always like this?' she thought, 'Why can't I be a little braver? I have tried to get into the guild so many times now and failed… I work up my courage without any trouble, but then it leaves me just as easily! I guess that's what being a coward really is…'

She sat still for a while, not really thinking about anything. The bubbles had started floating pretty far beyond the shore by now, so her eyes started wandering the area to look at them. Looking around, she saw what she thought was a rock in the sand by the shoreline a bit away from her. It was somewhat round and a little bigger than she was. That goes for most rocks anyway; Chikoritas aren't known to be one of the larger Pokémon. 'Wait a minute…' she thought to herself, 'Is that really a rock? It's so brightly colored…'.  
She started walking over there to get a closer look, and the nearer she got the less convinced she became that it was a rock. It looked like a Pokémon! 'Hey! Are you alright!?' she said while running towards the unknown creature.

* * *

"... Hmnm..." he mumbled. He could hear a voice, and something was bumping his side. His mind was still in scrambles, so he didn't really understand any of this. However, he recovered quickly, and suddenly opened his eyes. "Ah! Great, you're awake!" he heard a female voice to the right of him say. Although he had just come to it, he immediately noticed that something was wrong. He couldn't feel his arms or legs, his stomach felt very strange and he was somehow lying on a part of himself, although he couldn't determine what. "I was worried that something had happened…" he heard the voice again, snapping him out of his internal checkup and back into reality. He saw a rather orange sky above him filled with what seemed to be bubbles, and the unmistakable sound of waves could be heard. "… Are you OK?" he once again heard the voice say. Turning his head to the right, he was greeted by a green smiling face.

"GAH!" he shouted while trying to sit up, but it felt very different from what it usually felt like, "What the… What's this…". He looked again at the green face, which was now looking somewhat worried. "AH! What the heck is that!?" he said, quickly back away. "Huh?" Chikorita said, "What do you mean?". "I-It talks!?" he said, getting a better look at Chikorita from a distance, "A… A giant green hotdog with legs and a face… That gets worried and talks…?".  
"Hey! That's rude!" Chikorita snapped back and took a step forward, "What's wrong with you!?". "Stay away from me, hotdog!" he said and started to back away faster, causing him to trip and fall backwards, 'W-What's wrong with my body?' he thought. "Stupid Pikachu, what are you doing?" Chikorita said, getting more and more frustrated.

"Wait… What did you call me?" he said, suddenly stopping. "What I called you!? You called me a hotdog!" Chikorita said. "No, no, what you called me. 'Pikachu', was it?" he replied, now very confused. "Well, you are a Pikachu!" Chikorita said and was preparing to follow up, but stopped herself and watched as the shocked Pokémon suddenly looked down at his body and started moving his limbs. His expression was one of strong disbelief when he slowly said "I'm a… What? What am I?", and suddenly he just silently stared in front of him for a while. "You… Are you alright? I didn't mean to be so harsh before, I…" Chikorita started, but was interrupted as the Pikachu noticed the ocean and tried running there. He immediately stumbled, and even had some trouble getting back on his feet. When he finally got to the ocean, he stared in disbelief at his own reflection, not moving a single muscle.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

_Authors Comments: _Yes, the start of a new story. I have been playing Explorers of Darkness now for a few weeks, and as I was playing it I came up with a killer storyline and a lot of nice ideas that would be nice to somehow present to someone else. First, I tried drawing it. That went very poorly... A Pikachu was easy to throw together, but a Groudon? No way!  
Second, I tried making a video about it. Or yeah, 'tried' and 'tried'... I scrapped the plan at its embryo state, I've tried recording stuff before, and I know how much work it takes to make it function.  
So what was I to do? I was skipping around the house, basically exploding with ideas. I decided to try to write a new story, and I guess we'll see how it goes. There is still a few chapters left of the story before I can start writing the good parts I have planned, but since I can't just skip past the beginning I'll have to work my way through it. Oh! But don't think I won't make the rest exceptional as well! Er... Or at least I'll try to.

I love getting feedback on my work, be it good, bad or neutral. If you wish to show your appreciation for reading this story coughchaptercough, nothing suits me better than a good old review.

Until the next time...


	2. Realization

**Chapter 2 - Realization**

* * *

_Here we go! This is it!_

_Guh... Graaaahhh!!_

_Heh, We made it through the first part, now..._

_... What's happening to you? You're shrinking, I can't..._

_This isn't supposed to happen! WAIT! STOP IT!_

* * *

Looking back at him from the surface of the water was a creature with bright yellow fur. He had never seen anything like it before. Although he couldn't see the lower half of it, it seemed to be rather short and stubby. Its face was as yellow as the rest of its body with the exception being two black pupils, a thin line of darkness covering its mouth and two small spots with a strong red color on its cheeks. Not only that, but sticking out of the creatures head were two long, slender ears that had a pointy end to them with black fur. Staring at the water, he tried moving his head a little to the side, noticing that the creature did the same. He tried raising his right arm, and the creature did the same with its left one. The arms were short, and barely reached over the top of the creature's head. Observing the creature very carefully, he saw it very slowly move both its arms up to its head and pull down its long ears to its sides. Then, the creature appeared to clutch the end of them and squeeze hard.

He could feel it.

Chikorita watched as the scene with the strange Pokemon by the water progressed. He had been gripping his ears now for almost a minute without moving, his face lit up in shock. "Um..." she said as she started walking closer to him, "What's wrong?". His eyes quickly darted to look at her while the rest of his body was completely still, but after a second he slowly turned to face her. "You... Said I was a 'Pikachu'... Right?" he said, not masking the shakiness in his voice completely, "... What is that?". Chikorita was starting to get a nasty feeling of what might be going on, but she answered "That's what you are. You know... A Pokemon". "... Pokemon? What is a Pokemon?" the Pikachu answered, much to her shock. "Huh? You don't know that!?" she exclaimed with a surprised look on her face, "Pokemon are... Well, us! We both are Pokemon! I mean, what do you think you are?". The Pikachu looked at her with a strange look for a few seconds, before saying "Me? A human, of course!". "A... A human!?" Chikorita said. Whatever answer she had expected, this was not even remotely it. What made things even more strange was that the Pikachu seemed to be serious about what he had just said. "... A human?" she said while looking over him one last time, "... But you look exactly like a Pikachu in every way!".

"A Pikachu?" he said, remembering the creature in the water. "But that's impossible!" he said, "I've been a human all my life!". "I am..." he started, but nothing popped into his mind. "I... Am..." he repeated, but trailed off like before. 'What the...' he thought and looked down at the ground, 'Why can't I remember?'. "... I can't recall a thing!" he suddenly blurted out without thinking, "It's like all my memories have disappeared!". "All your memories? Do you have amnesia?" Chikorita said, finally starting to understand the situation. "No... Not all my memories" the Pikachu said while trying to remember as much as possible, "I clearly remember being human. This body is completely wrong!".

They were silent for a while, both of them thinking deeply. After a while, Chikorita said "You are sure that you were originally human, right?", by which she was replied with a nod from the Pikachu still deep in his own thoughts. "So... I've never heard about a human being turned into a Pokemon before... Maybe this is just side effects of the amnesia?". He thought about this for a moment before saying "No, probably not. Although I don't know exactly who, I know for sure that I was a human. Pokemon? Pikachu? I've never heard of something like that before. And this body... My arms and legs feel short, my ears feel big, and...". He trailed off and blinked once before twisting his body and looking behind him. There, he saw what he had felt he was lying on earlier. "... I even have a tail?" he said, and felt like crying for a second. "Hey, it's OK" Chikorita said when heard the bitterness in the Pikachu's last sentence, "Don't worry... I mean, if you really were turned into a Pokemon, who says that you can't turn back into a human?". The Pikachu's face lit up, and he raised his head to look directly at her. "Really!?" he said hopefully, "You know of a way!?". "No, I don't. But there might be someone who does! Let's wait until tomorrow, and then I'll help you..."

She was cut off as something heavy hit her hard in the back of her head with a loud thud. She yelped surprised and stumbled forward a bit. The Pikachu had seen something appear behind her a second before it happened, but didn't have the time to do anything. Instead, when he heard the thud he has been so surprised that he had taken a step backwards. However, he had forgotten just how short his current legs were and ended up falling over and landing on his tail. "AAH!" he shouted in pain as he quickly got up, only to be greeted by two new voices behind him laughing. He turned around, and saw two things a few feet away that weren't there before. The really strange part about them is that they were both floating in the air. One of them was a completely round and purple ball with several tiny craters sticking out of it. It had two thin eyes and a large mouth with visible two fangs. The other one also looked like a ball with a mouth, but was blue instead and had a few more distinguishing features like a head, a set of wings and two extremely thin legs. The strangest part about it was that it didn't appear to have any eyes.

"WAHAHAHA!" the purple ball kept laughing, "What a pair of morons!". "Kecheche! 'E gogh ich!" the other one chimed in. "HEY! What was that for!?" Chikorita said harshly, while the leaf on her head started moving around. "Wait... Where is my..." she said and looked over at the two newcomers. As she did this, the ball with wings opened its mouth to show that it was holding some kind of rock in there. "AH! My treasure!" she burst out suddenly realizing what had happened, "It's mine, give it back!". "WAHAH! Or else what, little coward?" the purple ball said while still laughing. The Pikachu was about to say something, but stopped himself when he saw Chikorita run towards the two creatures. However, as soon as they noticed this they both stopped laughing and started leering at her with menacing faces. It was enough to make her stop right away and quickly back off. "What's the matter?" the purple ball asked with a chilling tone, "Wanna fight? We'll beat you up". "Yhu dohnch hah dhe khusch" the creature with wings said, the stone in its mouth impairing its speech. "Please..." Chikorita said with a touch of desperation in the voice, "Give it back... It means so much to me". "... Nah! WAHAHA!" the purple ball said, apparently having turned back to its annoying self again, "It's valuable to us too, ya know!". "Whe will tache koodh care oh ich" the creature with wings cheerfully said. "And don't you dare tell anyone, or we'll come back to pound both your heads in!" the purple ball said before the both of them turned around and left, laughing.

Chikorita felt her legs give away and she fell to her stomach. At the same time, she heard a thud behind her. She didn't care about it, it didn't matter. Her most treasured belonging had just been stolen by two thugs, and there was nothing she could do about it. That stare that they gave her had made her realize just how dangerous they were, and her worked up courage had left her in a second. 'Just like always...' she thought, and she heard another thud behind her. "Wait... Grr..." she heard someone say. She looked back and saw that it was the Pikachu she met earlier, lying in the sand. She had forgotten all about him. "What's going on?" he said as he stood up, "Who were those two?". She sighed and said "A Koffing and a Zubat... I haven't met them before". She went silent, and the Pikachu said "What did they steal?". She stared down at the sand for a moment before saying "... My most treasured belonging". She regretted her words immediately, because suddenly feelings of sadness welled up in her like never before. "Well, why didn't you try to take it back!?" the Pikachu said with a loud and harsh voice, while try to move forward Chikorita without falling over. "What should I have done!?" she said as she stood up and faced him, not completely masking the sadness in her voice, "One of them was poisonous and the other one was a flying and bug type! I can't do anything against that!". "... Flying bug? Type?" he said, looking confused. "Oh, you don't understand anything!" she shouted at him. As she was getting sadder, her tears were getting harder and harder to hold back and she quickly turned around.

The Pikachu was still a bit stunned from the shout he had just taken head on. He was going to retort with a vengeance, but when he saw her turn around he felt sorry for her instead. He decided to say something else instead. After thinking up something good to say after a while, he walked closer to her while making sure that he wouldn't fall over (He still hadn't gotten used to his new body's lack of legs) and then tried talking as calmly as possibly.  
"You're right" he said, "I don't understand anything about this place. I know nothing about Pokemon, your treasure or even you. But none of that matters right now". He saw her twitch slightly. "Because I understand how it feels for someone to lose something very important" he continued, "And if I had been in that situation, I would not have let anything stop me from trying to get it back".

Chikorita remained silent. He stood there for a few moments before deciding to give her some time alone. But has he started walking away, he heard her say "Wait". He turned back around to see her get back on her feet. The green leaf on her head moved over her face before she turned around to face him once again. "If I... Try to get it back..." she said with a shaky voice, "... Will you help me?". "Huh?" the Pikachu replied. He had not expected this. "What, you mean, fight those two" he said, to which Chikorita nodded. "No way! I can't fight with this body!" he said while flailing his stubby arms, "Look at this! How am I supposed to punch anyone like this?". "But I'm a grass type!" she replied, "You're an electric type, you can at least deal with the Zubat!". "I told you, I don't know anything about any of this!" he said, "I'm not a Pikachu, I'm a human!". "I know!" she said, the strength in her voice returning, "But humans can fight too, right? Isn't there anything that you can do?".  
"Wait..." he suddenly said, "You... Believe that I was once human?". "Of course!" she said with an annoyed look on her face, "Why would you lie about something like that?". "So..." he continued, "... You'll help me become human again?". "Sure!" she said, a smile once again lighting her face. He thought for a moment, and then said "Tch... Fine, I'll help you. It's not like I could last long in a weird place like this without any information". "Okay then!" Chikorita beamed, "Let's go get those dirty thugs!".

As she went off to the direction where the two thieves left, the Pikachu started wondering where all that determination suddenly came from. "Oh! I almost forgot!" Chikorita said and turned back to him, "My name is Chikorita! Pleased to meet you!". "Huh? Oh, my name? It's..." he started, but recalled what had happened before when he tried to remember something from his past. This time, however, the piece of his mind that he was looking for came to him easily and almost rolled off his tongue.

"... Rabin! Um, pleased to meet you!" he finished the sentence with. He wondered how it could be that the sound of his own name was as familiar as ever, whereas he could not even recall a single time apart from this when it had been used. He started walking to catch up to Chikorita, who was waiting for him near a large stone in the sand. He was still having trouble with his new body, so he walked very slowly and carefully to avoid tripping on himself and falling over like before. Several times he had to stop to regain his balance. When he finally made it to Chikorita, they started walking together. "By the way..." she said with a worried look, "Why do you keep walking on _two_ legs like that?".

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

_Author's comments: _Nothing much to say this time around (Which is weird considering that I just wrote more than 2000 words, at least half of them being either "Chikorita" or "Pikachu"). Um... Please review? Oh yeah, there is one thing, the translation for what the Zubat is trying to say when holding that rock in his mouth (He doesn't have any arms or legs, how is he going to carry something otherwise?), in order of appearance:

"Kecheche! 'E gogh ich!" - "Kehehe! I got it!"

"Yhu dohnch hah dhe khusch" - "You don't have the guts"

"Whe will tache koodh care oh ich" - "We will take good care of it"

Put your fist in your mouth and try pronouncing any of the sentences above. I SWEAR that's what they sound like! Oh well, please review, and enjoy reading the rest of the story!


End file.
